From our other sites
The story
On Mt. Fuji, currently closed for the season, a Chinese national in his 20s set off alone on the morning of the 8th and then lost contact, triggering an ongoing police search. A friend who had traveled with him decided not to climb because the mountain was closed, and the two kept in touch by phone until contact cut off just before noon on the 8th. On 5ch, the discussion ranged from questions about his gear and judgment (“why does this happen every year during the off-season?”) to calls for billing the man or his family for the rescue costs, and even skepticism about why the reporting keeps emphasizing his nationality.
A search is underway after a tourist from China is believed to have gone missing on Mt. Fuji, which is currently closed for the season.
According to police, the man, a Chinese national in his 20s, arrived in Japan last week with a friend and began climbing Mt. Fuji alone on the morning of the 8th.
Because the mountain was closed for the season, his friend decided not to climb and instead exchanged videos and messages with him by phone, but contact was lost just before noon on the 8th.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Any videos of it?
It's gotta be frozen solid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2NbYrc-gBU
Hold him hostage in a cell until he pays and let China negotiate his release.
If you've got zero skill or gear, going up there is basically suicide.
anyone who can't tell 'this is too much snow to keep going' when they see it
is going to die somewhere eventually, Fuji or not.
He'll probably turn up around next year's mountain-opening season.
Doesn't China even have mountains?
What about Tibet?
If they refuse to pay, that's when you're allowed to call off the search.
isn't even identifying them difficult?
Don't sweat it — if it erupts, it'll all get buried anyway.
Did they ever find the body?
Yeah, that happened.
The guy was close to 50 at the time, I think — and I believe they did find the body.
I think he was found near the 7th station.
And while they're at it, send him home with them.
According to National Police Agency statistics, Mt. Fuji sees roughly 50-80 mountain accidents a year (83 in 2024, 49 in 2025).
Singling out the fact that he's Chinese in the reporting feels like it's just stirring things up.
and having to be rescued.
Background and key points of discussion
Mt. Fuji’s mountain huts typically stop operating in early September, marking the start of the “closed season,” but this isn’t a legal ban on entering the mountain — climbing during the closed season is technically allowed, and unlike the thread’s suggestion that “there are barricades,” there’s no actual penalty for doing so. That said, once the season closes, the mountain huts and first-aid stations shut down and weather conditions start to resemble winter mountaineering, making the risk of getting stranded higher than in summer. The National Police Agency statistics cited in the thread put the number of Mt. Fuji mountain accidents at 83 in 2024 and 49 in 2025, and incidents during the closed season recur almost every year. Who should cover search-and-rescue costs is a recurring debate, but under the current system those costs are generally handled with public funds, and billing the individual or their family isn’t standard practice. The claim that “it’s only getting heavy coverage because he’s Chinese” is also tied to the fact that off-season accidents skew heavily toward foreign tourists, so nationality alone doesn’t fully explain the coverage.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “Search begins for Chinese climber who went missing after starting an unequipped climb up closed Mt. Fuji.”
Leave a Reply